Telemedicine: an Effective and Low-Cost Lesson From the COVID-19 Pandemic for the Management of Heart Failure Patients

The purpose of this review is to explore the benefits and controversies that telemedicine (TM), applied to patients with heart failure (HF), can provide in terms of diagnosis, therapeutic management, and prognosis improvement.

During the coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) outbreak, TM emerged as the most effective and feasible method available to ensure continuous care for chronic diseases. Among these, HF, characterized by high mortality, morbidity, and the need for frequent visits, may benefit of the TM role. HF patients are affected by frequent exacerbations undergoing a progressive prognosis impoverishment, strongly depending on the disease’s management. A precise clinical handling is always required, with a constant optimization of the therapy, a continuous control of risk factors, and a sensitive attention to any change in symptoms, clinical signs, and laboratory tests. In this context, TM has shown to improve therapy adherence and HF: patients’ self-care, impacting the prognosis even if specific results are controversial. Major evidence shows that TM may allow an adequate primary prevention, reducing the impact of the main cardiovascular risk factors. TM can also be useful for the secondary prevention, early detecting a likely HF exacerbation before it becomes clinically manifest, thereby lowering the need for hospitalization. Moreover, an optimal up-titration of the therapy and an increase in treatment adherence are feasible by using TM. However, some studies did not show unambiguous results, and uncertainties still remain.